HOUSTON— When Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis arrived at the Capitol in Austin on Tuesday morning wearing pink sneakers, everyone knew that a daylong, marathon filibuster was about to begin. So was a controversy.

Davis, 50, a Democrat from Fort Worth, had been specially chosen by her caucus to mount a last-ditch attempt to block sweeping legislation to ban abortions at 20 weeks and force the state’s abortion clinics to upgrade or close. Whether she succeeded was unclear.

The standards for filibusters in the 31-member Texas Senate are stricter than in the U.S. Senate. To succeed, Davis would have to speak about the legislation until the special session ended at midnight. No talking off topic. No food or water. No bathroom breaks.{the miss’s says she’s like to see a man pull that off.}No leaning on her desk. Certainly no sitting. Before she started, her chair was removed.

Davis had filibustered once before, for less than two hours. But the former single teenage mother had made it to Harvard Law School, served nine years on the Fort Worth City Council, run a marathon and triathlon and had plenty of stories to tell. She arrived armed with binders full of other women’s stories too. . . .

TEXAS -SB5 is officially dead!!! The people win, thanks to State Senator Wendy Davis and her marathon filibuster. She is America’s newest hero!!!

Texas republicans tried to cheat and say the vote took place before midnight, but everyone was watching and it was proven the vote took place 2 minutes after midnight. The vote didn’t count and SB5, which would have closed almost all the abortion clinics in Texas FAILED.

It’s like gun control, but in reverse. Measures like this are similar to why gun rights advocates resist “reasonable” gun control laws, because you give an inch and they seek to take a mile. It also shows the indirect means the different sides use, for example here since they can’t outlaw abortion clinics, they sought to regulate them out of existence. Hats off to the lady though. Now if only we could get some Republicans to do such a filibuster in the states seeking to infringe on gun rights.